Spring Snow Goose Conservation Season

Prairie's Edge also offers fully guided Spring Snow & Blue goose hunts.  Hunts will be from legal shooting hour in the morning until 6:00 pm. We run up to 1500 Bigfoot, Sillosocks, Custom Windsocks, and Silhouettes for this special season.  Hunts take place near Squaw Creek Wildlife Refuge and other key areas in Northwest Missouri depending on bird activity.  All our hunts take place from either pit blind, layout blinds, or haybale blinds in surrounding fields.  All our my guides are seasoned veterans of the spring snow goose season which started 1996 in Missouri.

• Missouri Hunts - We offer hunts in NW Missouri around several refuges including Squaw Creek NWR from February to Mid March.  Location of hunts are determined by staging location of the masses of snow geese, usually these hunts will be surrounding Squaw Creek NWR, but depending on the birds we may relocate to other major staging areas in Western Missouri.
• South Dakota Hunts - We offer hunts starting in Mid March - Early April in the Lake Thompson area.  This is a major staging area in Eastern South Dakota each Spring with snow geese using Lake Thompson and other surrounding large bodies of water.  This area is the funnel point where the Mississippi and Central flyway flocks of snow geese come together.  The majority of the mid-continent population of lesser snow geese migrates within this corridor each spring on their way back to the breeding ground on the tundra. 

The Hunt

Our day usually starts  one hour before shooting time at a local landmark (gas station, farm house, McDonalds) which we will line up with you the night before.  At this time we will travel to the field which is usually less than 15 minutes drive.  At this time we will go over simple field instructions/rules for our day in the spread.  This is done for your safety and to ensure we have a successful outing.  Our hunts run from a half hour before sunrise until roughly 6pm.  We will typically take a break from the action if the group of hunters wants to; otherwise you are free to spend the entire day in the field with your guide.  Cleaning of the birds is the responsibility of each group member; this can be done at our farm house if you wish.  If you do not wish to clean your birds this can be done for a fee of $5/bird, this payment is due at the end of your hunt when you pick up your birds.  At the end of each hunt your guide will make arrangements for the details of the next day’s hunt, you may being hunting in the same snow goose spread if the days hunt was a success, otherwise you may move to a new location.

Equipment

• Decoys – We utilize spread of snow goose decoys ranging from 400 to 1500 decoys depending on weather and what the birds demand.  These decoys spreads consist of Big Foot Full Bodies, Sillosock Decoys, and Custom Wind Socks.  Our decoys spreads with be set up usually before you arrive, but depending on our need to move locations you should be expecting to pitch-in on the pick-up and resetting of the snow goose spread.  This is done for your benefit so that we can maximize or time in the field and killing snow geese to save the tundra.
• Blinds - We utilize Final Approach Layout Blinds, Haybale Blinds, and in-ground pits near Squaw Creek NWR.  These blinds are selected on a day by day basis depending on the type of field we hunting. 
• Electronic Calls – We utilize custom electronic snow goose callers, these units use digital recordings of live snow geese played through MP3 players.  Each spread uses two – four loud pa horn speakers, the volume of these are managed by the guide.  Each guide also will use traditional conventional mouth calls to give us and added advantage over other guide services who only use electronic calls.
• Special Equipment - Your guides also use state of the art snow goose equipment.  Some special equipment is used on days that there may have no wind, or on days where the birds demand more from us and we deploy our bag of tricks to entice the birds into shooting range.

What to bring

• Facemask – Each hunter needs to bring a facemask which will be worn at all times in the blind.
• Clothing – Since spring conditions can vary from below freezing to 75 degrees changing almost overnight it is important that you come prepared for all weather conditions.  We recommend each hunter to have a pair of waterproof boots, most hunters prefer knee high rubber boats as the fields may be very sloppy and holding some sheet water in the spring.  Some hunters like to just wear waders to stay clean and dry.  We also recommend that you have a set of waterproof clothing as it sometimes will be raining or snowing while in the field.  Also from getting in and out of the blind causing the bottom of the blind will become wet/muddy.  I also like on colder days to use those small shake-up hand warmers for my boots and pockets….nice to have toasty toes and fingers for $2.
• Ammo – We recommend you to bring a case of ammo for a 2-3 day hunt, we personally use #2’s or BB’s in our guns in the 3” – 3.5” lengths.  If you can afford to use Tungsten or Hevishot this is the best loads available but spendy, #2’s is the best loads for that.
• Bird cleaning supplies – Bird cleaning is the responsibility of each hunter in the group.  Birds can be cleaned by the groups at our house, but you have to bring your own supplies.  We recommend each hunter to bring at least one box of 1 gallon zip lock bags, a fillet knife.  If you do not wish to clean your snow geese, one of our guides will gladly do it for $5 per bird.
• Snack in the field – Since you will be spending upwards of 12-13 hours a day in the field we recommend each hunter to bring some snacks and drinks into the field.
• Camera – Make sure to bring your camera for those after hunt photos, since it is often muddy we recommend you put in a zip lock bag to keep it dry.